Rating: 
Summary: A MAGNIFICENT TOUR DE FORCE FOR KING
Review: I have fallen deeply in love with this book. I am 15 years old, and have acquired a growing love for all of King's books...he's a pure genius...but this one is definitely his best. The way it grows excedes novel format; instead, it feels like you are literally inside Jack's mind, or inside Danny's mind, or inside the hotel itself. Chilling, horrific, and wonderfully, eerily psychological, this book is a masterpiece and should be the rite of submission for any new Stephen King fan.
Rating:
Summary: Classic
Review: Every now and then you come across a novel that not only inspires you, but also shapes the world around you. I just reread this book (something I rarely do) and it was as effective as it was the first time I read it when I was 14. This was one of the first "adult" novels I was allowed to read (my parents were quite protective). And it set the standard for all other books and I constantly measure other scary books on the Shining scale. I will not say that this is King's best work, because so much of his stuff is just as good only on a different level. But, for sheer creep you out, goosebumps-down-your-spine pleasure, nothing else will do.
Rating: 
Summary: King's best novel.
Review: Stephen King's output is formidable in terms of sheer wordage, or number of titles. It is generally lacking in terms of having anything to say. Overall, if you read a few King novels, you've read them all; a comprehensive reading of everything he puts out is only for those who are endlessly enchanted by the repetitious cycles of romance and machinations on daytime soap operas. (I would make an exception to this comment in the case of his short story collections, or the compilation of four novellas called "Different Seasons.")If you were to read only one King novel, however, this would be the one. "The Shining" is unique among his novels in that it does not take place in New England, and the change of scenery (and, these days, the lack of the mythos baggage provided by the rest of King's Maine novels) serves it well. Ignore Kubrick's film version (which, like most of his overrated catalog, is hardly a good film, much less a great one)--in "The Shining," Stephen King comes closest to being genuinely terrifying, as opposed to merely horrifying, as opposed to merely grossing-out (to paraphrase the man himself). Despite having only four living characters of any note, the novel is well plotted and well executed right until the end, where King finally drops the ball completely with a disappointing cop-out of an ending (did he perhaps forget the first admonition given to beginning writers, namely that the worst possible ending is one where everything is blown up?) Specifically, the scene of the woman in the shower is easily the creepiest King has ever written, and stands as perhaps his only credential for having contributed anything to the horror genre that will outlast his own corporeal existence. Read "The Shining" if you read any King at all.
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT READ!!!
Review: This is the best book I have ever read. Intense is the onlyword that comes to mind when I think of the Shining. Intense andSCARY!!!!
Rating:
Summary: CHILLING, ABSOLUTELY CHILLING...
Review: Danneeeeee... Dannnnneeeeeeeee... Don't go. REDRUM... REDRUM... REDRUM!! This book is the most chilling book I've ever read! Read this and I promise you'll be scared out of your pants! GREAT character build up, exelent use of horror without too much gore, and a climax that is litterally explosive! King describes the dark hotel, and tells the chilling tale of it's dark past, and how it forever haunts. This book will make you fear your own house, your own bathroom, your own bathtub even! Cuz everytime you take a bath, you will think of the undead lady, Mrs.Massey, in the room 217. If you think that horror can't be provided without gore, then you are horribly wrong my friend. This book will haunt you everytime you are in an urban surrounding. And I don't think you'll ever want a hotel room named 217 again! The only part I didn't like about the book was the fact that the ending really sucked. I liked the ending in the ABC Movie 'The Shining' with Steven Webber, better. King should of made the grown up Danny be the Tony that little Danny always sees. But other than that, the book is GREAT! "Shine on brother, shine on!" REDRUM...MURDER!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best horror novels ever written
Review: Okay, here it is: this is Stephen King's best book. I'm not slamming his others, I'm a huge fan, and I have read everything he's done- and pound for pound, this one is the most concise, the most intelligent, the scariest, and the most moving. Some may argue, and say "It" is better, but while "It" is a phenomenal book, "The Shining" surpasses it. Read this book. The wording is not awkward. It is amazing. This is one of my top five favorite books (and in case you're wondering as to my "taste," the other four include "The Catcher in the Rye," "Deathbird Stories," "The Great Gatsby" and- well, something else that I can't think of right now.) and it is more than worth your time. It's better than the Kubrick movie, and it's better than the tv miniseries King made of it. This is a truly magnificent work of fiction. If anything is remembered from King's carreer, this should be it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good and thrilling
Review: I read The Shining, it inspired me, not being King's best work it surprised me that it wa sbetter than Carrie, i shocked by the plot an pleased with the climax, we finally find a book which is better than the film.
Rating:
Summary: Forces of darkness
Review: This book brings to mind a quote from some occult figure(maybe Alistair Croweley, and I'm paraphrasing)"Forces of darkness are lying in wait for certain individuals to spirit them away" This certainly describes Jack Torrance, an essentially decent person, with a few too many "tragic flaws". There may be a psychological term for this, but his sense of self seems to have too many gaps, allowing for the dark forces to manipulate him and slowly destroy his personality. Neither movie does justice to the physical destruction he suffers (even though he's quite drunk, you can be sure he's in agony). If there is such a thing as a soul, where has his gone? A truly tragic and unsettling tale.
Rating:
Summary: Spoooooooooooky
Review: This book does live up to its reputation as one of the great modern horror novels. It may have a slow start, but quickly becomes a page turner. The back story, and "ghosts" are played perfectly...not too much is told. Very creepy!
Rating:
Summary: Descent into madness
Review: I'd seen the film the first week it came out and like many people under 18, I tried to make myself look older to get into the cinema. So, 22 years later, does the book match up? The refreshing thing about the book is that it doesn't follow the film to the letter and in this sense it is far better than the film. However, I think King may have missed an opportunity for making the story immortal, instead of a "creepy ghost-packed hotel" chiller. He says it himself when 'Jack' starts to see hedge animals moving. "Seeing them move if you are a heavy drinker is called the DT's, but seeing them move when cold sober is called 'insanity'". And I think its here that King missed playing his trump card, because he opts for the supernatural rather then an ambiguous insanity. It is only much later in the book that definite proof of the supernatural exists rather then in the head of Jack and his son, but it was the very possibility of insanity being the reason for such hallucinations rather then ghosts that made the book stand out from all the others for me. Still, it has to be one of the most important horror stories of the latter half of the twentieth century, taking into account the backdrop of a failing marriage, alcoholism and child abuse, subjects which King bravely tackles head on. But it could have been a novel which took all of Poe's genius to a higher level, a novel of self-destruction and insanity for the twentieth century reader. OK, I'll make do with the ghosts, but it drops a star from a perfect five.
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